To catch a predator with Chris Hansen

[Skeletor]

I've recently discovered this series that aired in the mid 2000s. It was the golden age of online chat rooms, and they were infested with men looking for sex. This was generally a fruitless search except for gay men. I mean, women are not going to be trolling online for pickups. Many of these wolves were in search of children, and this makes even less sense to me. Teenagers don't live by themselves, and many of these men went to what they believed to be the kids house. What were the chances of running into mom, dad, sister, or brother? Also teens are fickle. They may wake up the next morning and feel violated and go to the police. So the chance of this liaison staying secret is near zero.

Now you may think that it was just losers and the mentally ill that fell for it. Some certainly were, but not as many as you would think. Some were rich men well established with wives great jobs and expensive homes, like a rabbi, a cancer doctor, and several active service military. Why risk all that on.such a high risk low reward scenario? Its mind boggling.

 

[oregano]

Back then a lot of people seemed to think that just because you were alone with your computer in your basement that therefore anything you wrote would somehow NOT be broadcast to the entire world. They didn't seem to think that these chat rooms were heavily trolled by cops and semi-cops like Perverted Justice that was sort of a militia type organization that hunted pedophiles online and that provided the muscle behind To Catch A Predator. I remember hearing about entire chats that became infiltrated by cops with the result that everybody in the chatroom went to prison. Today online pedophilia is far more targeted, wolves will lurk in places where teens hang out and zero in on a specific girl (usually girls) and then "groom" her. Or they will just go old school and lure kids offline in the community. The chatroom era was definitely odd, and people got into lots of legal trouble by yapping too much in chats. It wasn't just pedos, one guy fell in love with a "teen" he'd met in a chat and then killed a guy he thought was a love rival, turns out the "girl" was a frumpy 50 year old woman who was roleplaying online and didn't seem to realize how serious the guy was.

 

[Aspychata]

Back then a lot of people seemed to think that just because you were alone with your computer in your basement that therefore anything you wrote would somehow NOT be broadcast to the entire world. They didn't seem to think that these chat rooms were heavily trolled by cops and semi-cops like Perverted Justice that was sort of a militia type organization that hunted pedophiles online and that provided the muscle behind To Catch A Predator. I remember hearing about entire chats that became infiltrated by cops with the result that everybody in the chatroom went to prison. Today online pedophilia is far more targeted, wolves will lurk in places where teens hang out and zero in on a specific girl (usually girls) and then "groom" her. Or they will just go old school and lure kids offline in the community. The chatroom era was definitely odd, and people got into lots of legal trouble by yapping too much in chats. It wasn't just pedos, one guy fell in love with a "teen" he'd met in a chat and then killed a guy he thought was a love rival, turns out the "girl" was a frumpy 50 year old woman who was roleplaying online and didn't seem to realize how serious the guy was.

I always felt you needed to be careful with people's emotions. I discussed this with my daughter. I have been thru some pretty ridiculous situations, and l can fully say on authority, some men don't seriously contemplate what they are trying to accomplish as totally ludicrous. Woman also have their own hall of shame.

 

[nowwhat]

Now you may think that it was just losers and the mentally ill that fell for it. Some certainly were, but not as many as you would think. Some were rich men well established with wives great jobs and expensive homes, like a rabbi, a cancer doctor, and several active service military. Why risk all that on.such a high risk low reward scenario? Its mind boggling.

I would posit that anyone who is trying to screw kids is a mentally ill loser, regardless of their income/occupation. Think about it.

 

[Au Naturel]

Even in the 90s, I thought everyone understood that almost all the sexy and available teenagers online were really cops and most of the sexy and available older women were really teenage boys.

I suppose that's what happens when the little head does the thinking instead of the big one.

 

[Kit]

I used to watch this show and then it was cancelled when some man killed himself. What happened was he was a lawyer if I remember correctly and he was in the chat room and tried to hit up with a minor and flaked out because he didn't show up. So Chris and his team came to him instead and he killed himself when he saw them outside. Lawsuits were filed against them so the show got cancelled.

Maybe the man was innocent and he was trolling the chat room and messing with a "minor" and flaked out. You do not mess around with this stuff, ever.

Lot of pedophiles think this is entrapment but no it's not. No regular person would fall for this because they wouldn't be talking sexual to a minor in the first place after being made aware of their age and they wouldn't be trying to meet up with them. No entrapment there.

 

[Skeletor]

Back then a lot of people seemed to think that just because you were alone with your computer in your basement that therefore anything you wrote would somehow NOT be broadcast to the entire world. They didn't seem to think that these chat rooms were heavily trolled by cops and semi-cops like Perverted Justice that was sort of a militia type organization that hunted pedophiles online and that provided the muscle behind To Catch A Predator. I remember hearing about entire chats that became infiltrated by cops with the result that everybody in the chatroom went to prison. Today online pedophilia is far more targeted, wolves will lurk in places where teens hang out and zero in on a specific girl (usually girls) and then "groom" her. Or they will just go old school and lure kids offline in the community. The chatroom era was definitely odd, and people got into lots of legal trouble by yapping too much in chats. It wasn't just pedos, one guy fell in love with a "teen" he'd met in a chat and then killed a guy he thought was a love rival, turns out the "girl" was a frumpy 50 year old woman who was roleplaying online and didn't seem to realize how serious the guy was.

One of the police on the show admitted they wouldn't have had the resources for a sting like this without perverted justice to do the endless man hours of chat for them. It would have cost a fortune. I'm betting the stings you mention were FBI and not local police.

 

[Skeletor]

I always felt you needed to be careful with people's emotions. I discussed this with my daughter. I have been thru some pretty ridiculous situations, and l can fully say on authority, some men don't seriously contemplate what they are trying to accomplish as totally ludicrous. Woman also have their own hall of shame.

As a man I understand the phenomenon of temporary insanity of the penis. However some of these guys traveled hundreds of miles over country back roads for what they thought would be sex with a twelve year old.

 

[Skeletor]

I would posit that anyone who is trying to screw kids is a mentally ill loser, regardless of their income/occupation. Think about it.

I know what you mean, and I'd have agreed before seeing this show. Many of these guys, most in fact, were not members of the NAMBLA pedo lifestyle and probably would never have done this without the internet. Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending them. In fact I hope they got to share a cell with a hardened criminal who tought them the difference between rape.and informed consent.

 

[Skeletor]

The guy who shot himself was an assistant district attorney who shot himself because even being accused of this was life ruining for him. In addition he feared what would happen to him in prison.

 

[Aspychata]

Taught my daughter from an early age that that area was a no touch zone. And she was upset that l repeated the msg. Then one day she thanked me. She said that knowledge saved her from being raped. We should teach little boys and little girls what is correct.

 

[Au Naturel]

The guy who shot himself was an assistant district attorney who shot himself because even being accused of this was life ruining for him. In addition he feared what would happen to him in prison.

Can't comment on the DA's case because I haven't heard about it. And I don't know what he said or who he thought he was saying it to. Maybe he really was a sick SOB. Maybe they couldn't get a pedophile to show up for that week so they went hunting for one. I do know that TV shows only want ratings and any kind of moral consideration goes out the window. If the suit prevailed, that tells you something. Because of the First Amendment, it is is extremely difficult to win a suit against the media.

Just the public accusation is enough to destroy a person. No trial needed and no amount of exculpatory evidence will matter. People who claim false accusations never happen are lying and people who say they happen all the time are also lying. This makes it a very contentious area. All it takes is one person who has a hate for you. Or maybe is nuts themself. Of course, there are people who believe the losses caused by a few false accusations are "worth" the benefit of making it easier to prosecute those kinds of cases in general.

McMartin preschool trial - Wikipedia

A whole preschool was destroyed, numerous children unnecessarily traumatized and every adult involved with the school had their lives ruined because a grandstanding prosecutor took the ravings of a psychotic woman and ran with them purely for the PR value of looking tough on child abuse. And it wasn't the only baseless prosecution of that type. This sort of thing makes it more difficult for legitimate cases.

 

[oregano]

The McMartin case was probably more about the Satanism and "satanic abuse" panic of the 80s, where prosecutors, especially the one in Los Angeles who was facing an uphill reelection bid, wanted to get convictions of supposed "satanists" under their belt in order to lend gravitas to widespread conspiracy theories about massive, widespread satanic cult activity in suburban America that involved hundreds of thousands of children being abused in ways that were paranormal and supranormal, including events that were impossible in the known framework of science but that were uncritically believed due to the supposed supernatural abilities of Satan and his demons.

The "Satanic Panic" got to a point where physical and emotional (and even some non-supernatural sexual) abuse was shoved aside in order to verify the wild accusations of supernatural satanic cult activity. Not only were children who were caught up in the satanic panic traumatized, but an unknown number of children suffered very real abuse that was dismissed by others because it wasn't lurid enough. The toll on those children will never be known; suicides and repeat abuse of grown sufferers inflicting their childhood traumas on their own children are impossible to quantify.

 

[AspieOtaku]

I love the show, hansen busted many child fiddlers.

 

[Skeletor]

Can't comment on the DA's case because I haven't heard about it. And I don't know what he said or who he thought he was saying it to. Maybe he really was a sick SOB. Maybe they couldn't get a pedophile to show up for that week so they went hunting for one. I do know that TV shows only want ratings and any kind of moral consideration goes out the window. If the suit prevailed, that tells you something. Because of the First Amendment, it is is extremely difficult to win a suit against the media.

Just the public accusation is enough to destroy a person. No trial needed and no amount of exculpatory evidence will matter. People who claim false accusations never happen are lying and people who say they happen all the time are also lying. This makes it a very contentious area. All it takes is one person who has a hate for you. Or maybe is nuts themself. Of course, there are people who believe the losses caused by a few false accusations are "worth" the benefit of making it easier to prosecute those kinds of cases in general.

McMartin preschool trial - Wikipedia

A whole preschool was destroyed, numerous children unnecessarily traumatized and every adult involved with the school had their lives ruined because a grandstanding prosecutor took the ravings of a psychotic woman and ran with them purely for the PR value of looking tough on child abuse. And it wasn't the only baseless prosecution of that type. This sort of thing makes it more difficult for legitimate cases.

Its pretty obvious you haven't seen the show. The evidence against these guys was overwhelming and iron clad. That's why the cancer doctor eventually had to plead no contest even though it was clear that he thought his money and position and privileges would get him a reroll and he would get out cut Scott free with no consequences. Same for the rabbi, who was an arrogant man clearly protected his whole life by money connections and etc. He took Hansen for the kids father and by what he was saying his plan was to turn the whole thing around and blame it all on the fourteen year old he was planning to have sex with.

Let me ask you something, because you seem ready to turn this into a pretzel and cast these wolves as the victims. How would you react to one of them just waltzing over to your home and coming in like they owned the place looking to screw your twelve year old son or daughter? Because that's what happened here over and over again. I get the sense that you are an anti law enforcement type, and that's not what this thread is about. Go to YouTube and watch some of these guys. In particular the two guys who came in naked, the rabbi, the doctor, and the guy with the screen name loves to be naked. He was by far the worst.

 

[Skeletor]

I love the show, hansen busted many child fiddlers.

Here's hoping they got good and fiddled themselves in prison.

 

[Skeletor]

The McMartin case was probably more about the Satanism and "satanic abuse" panic of the 80s, where prosecutors, especially the one in Los Angeles who was facing an uphill reelection bid, wanted to get convictions of supposed "satanists" under their belt in order to lend gravitas to widespread conspiracy theories about massive, widespread satanic cult activity in suburban America that involved hundreds of thousands of children being abused in ways that were paranormal and supranormal, including events that were impossible in the known framework of science but that were uncritically believed due to the supposed supernatural abilities of Satan and his demons.

The "Satanic Panic" got to a point where physical and emotional (and even some non-supernatural sexual) abuse was shoved aside in order to verify the wild accusations of supernatural satanic cult activity. Not only were children who were caught up in the satanic panic traumatized, but an unknown number of children suffered very real abuse that was dismissed by others because it wasn't lurid enough. The toll on those children will never be known; suicides and repeat abuse of grown sufferers inflicting their childhood traumas on their own children are impossible to quantify.

This case has nothing to do with the to catch a predator show. Oh, and it was canceled because of the suicide and not the lawsuit. The lawsuit was this cry of entrapment.

 

[WildCat]

Recently discovered? The series was a big deal at the time it aired.

Of course it's going to be mind boggling when you're not one. Have any compulsions? More of a rhetorical question, but start there.

 

[Au Naturel]

Its pretty obvious you haven't seen the show. The evidence against these guys was overwhelming and iron clad. That's why the cancer doctor eventually had to plead no contest even though it was clear that he thought his money and position and privileges would get him a reroll and he would get out cut Scott free with no consequences. Same for the rabbi, who was an arrogant man clearly protected his whole life by money connections and etc. He took Hansen for the kids father and by what he was saying his plan was to turn the whole thing around and blame it all on the fourteen year old he was planning to have sex with.

Let me ask you something, because you seem ready to turn this into a pretzel and cast these wolves as the victims. How would you react to one of them just waltzing over to your home and coming in like they owned the place looking to screw your twelve year old son or daughter? Because that's what happened here over and over again. I get the sense that you are an anti law enforcement type, and that's not what this thread is about. Go to YouTube and watch some of these guys. In particular the two guys who came in naked, the rabbi, the doctor, and the guy with the screen name loves to be naked. He was by far the worst.

You know nothing of my feelings about law enforcement. Or of almost any other political issue.

I pointed out that I knew nothing of the case of the DA who committed suicide. Nowhere did I offer any support for those caught red handed. I merely commented on the possibility of false allegations ruining a life. And gave an example.

If you think any television show exists for any purpose other than to garner ratings and thereby advertising revenue, you have a very naive outlook. If "To Catch a Predator" didn't get enough ratings to be competitive in its time slot, any social good it may have performed would be irrelevent. It would be gone. I guess playing the sound of the guy's suicide shot on air was pretty good for ratings.

 

[AspieOtaku]

Here's hoping they got good and fiddled themselves in prison.

Their getting fiddled by other fiddlers as the prison *insert female dog word here*